“Rats in the Palm Trees”

After releasing their debut LP Antipodes earlier this year, New Zealand’s Popstrangers moved to London and temporarily set up shop in a boat on the Thames, where they recorded a 7”, "Rats in the Palm Trees" b/w "Fortuna" (out November 5 via Carpark) with former Test Icicles member Rory Atwell. A-side “Rats in the Palm Trees” shows the band hasn’t lost their indie rock bearings: strains of Superchunk run through the scrappy-guitar chorus and vocalist Joel Flyger’s reedy delivery, but the rest of the song wouldn’t be out of place alongside Flying Nun’s rich shoegaze history. Though “Rats” feels looser than the tense, moody bulk of Antipodes, there's power still rumbling beneath those melodic bursts of feedback.